Virgins are like the fair flow'r

General information

Text by John Gay for wedding to an adapted air in the Beggar's Opera

Settings by composers (automatically updated)

• Samuel Webbe Jr. — Virgins are like the fair flow'r  English STB
• Johann Christoph Pepusch — Virgins are like the fair flow'r  English SSB, TTB

Text and translations

English text

Virgins are like the fair flow'r in its lustre
Which in the garden enamels the ground;
Near it the bees in play flutter and cluster,
And gaudy butterflies frolic around.
But when once plucked, 'tis no longer alluring,
To Covent Garden is sent as yet sweet;
There fades and droops and grows past all enduring,
Shrinks, rots and dies and is trod under feet.